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People have free will for many things. They make countless decisions such as choosing what to wear, where to go, or what to eat. The results that they make come from their choices.   However, sometimes there are some cases that limit people’s free will because the future is already determined. Both the movie "Minority report" and the play "Oedipus the king" deal with the issue of how much humans control (free will) over their lives in the situations of determined future.

 In the movie minority report shows the future where people could predict future crime by three precogs and they caught pre-murderer before they committed a crime. People in that society were sure that the three precogs’ prediction was absolutely right and there was no exception. So they did not make any other decisions other than precogs’. They were totally affected depend on precogs’ prediction. When people found out that the main character John Anderton would kill Leo Crow, they undoubtedly believed that he must kill Leo Crow which cannot be changeable. Unlike other people in the movie, Anderton was the one who did not believe precogs, and tried to change determined future with his free will. (This is the concept of soft determinism(106) ). Precogs predicted that he was going to kill someone, but Anderton did not accept it and doubted about precog system. He tried to change his fate. Since he knew what was going to happen to him, he decided not to kill anybody as the three precogs predicted. Even if it seems that there was only one possible result, Anderton made another possible future by making his own decision. It seems that he had a strong free will.  Even if Leo Crow was finally dead like precog predicted, he was not killed by Anderton.

Likewise, in the play Oedipus the king, there is the same concept of how much Oedipus control himself in the situation of miserable destiny. In the play, when Oedipus’ father heard that his son would kill him and marry his wife, he believed that. He could not control his life. He was controlled by prophecy. He believed that there was no other choice, so he tried to get rid of his son to prevent terrible future. For him, the destiny that he was involved had only one possible future and absence of one’s self control. On the other hand, the king Oedipus was different than his father. When he was told about his destiny, Oedipus made exertion to change it. He left his home, and tried not to contact with his parents. However, he actually killed his father and married his mother. When Oedipus realized that he already had followed his destiny, he was despaired. It seems that he did not have any free will, but he did not yield his destiny. He just did not leave his country, he punished himself by making his eyes blind. This shows Oedipus’ strong free will. He controlled his life with making his own decision no matter what kind of fate he faced.

In addition to both the movie and the play, the article, ”free will and determinism in the world of Minority Report” support the idea of determinism and one’s free will. It shows two concepts of determinism. In the hard determinism, there is only one outcome possible, and no free will exist. In the soft determinism, there is determined future, but people have free will so that the determined future can be changeable by a person’s choice. Both Oedipus and Anderton had soft determinism. They chose their action and were responsible for outcome happened.

It looks that there is no difference between the movie and the play, but in the movie, Anderton actually knew what was going to happen to him and he chose not to follow his fate. However, in the play, Oedipus could not control his fate perfectly. He did exactly what prophecy said even if he always decides his action by himself.